Greetings all - can anyone help me with this problem -I have just d/l The Queen and NG for FS9 but cannot connect to the FS9 flight planner ie: when I plan a flight using FS9 it does not show on my PDMG FMC - there is a message at L3 in route page saying "data link - NO Comm" ...probably a dumb problem, but help appreciated!!

Hi!..er...hum...name please?FS9 flightplans will never show in your FMC.They are not "connected" as you said.There are two ways of entering a flight plan in the FMC:1.- Type it directly into the FMC. (The best way to learn a lot about FMC programming)2.- Build yor plan in some external tool (FSBuild...) and export it into PMDG format to this folder (C:/program files/microsoft games/flight simulator 9/PMDG/flightplans)My advice: If you have downloaded both the 737 and the 747, START WITH THE SMALL ONE, and ONLY when you have achieved a good NG experience jump to the 747 (That is also the way things happen in the real world)Jose Luis.

I forgot to say that in option #2.- there is another step to bring up your plan to the FMC:Once you have the route file (let's say you have named it FIUMICINO-HEATHROW.RTE) you must open the ROUTE page of your FMC, and you will find a CO ROUTE line.Type the name FIUMICINO-HEATHROW in the scratchpad, upload it to the CO ROUTE line, ACTIVATE and EXECUTE, and your plan should show.Jose Luis

Thanks for your reply Jose Luis - I will follow your advice.However, is a pilot in real life expected to manually load a flight plan into the FMC?? And if not, why can't FS9 / PDMG offer this?Sure, its a forced learning experience for a learning pilot, but I am not, so what gives??

>>However, is a pilot in real life expected to manually load a>flight plan into the FMC?? >He is expected (he must in fact) to know how to do it, and more important: how to modify it.Think that real airline pilots maybe repeating the same legs one day and another, so, the flightplans are already loaded into the FMC memory, they don't have to load it from scratch for every flight. The only thing that could be different along the days is the departure and arrival procedures.Perhaps the hardest side of building a route when you are not using the default FS9 planner is to know which waypoints to enter along the route. You have an easy solution, go to RouteFinder and a big part of the problem will be solved.http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/I have found that learning to use the FMC, and use it later on inflight is a very enjoyable part of this real-like simulation that PMDG has created.Jose Luis